Stoosh wrote:- This is the part I'm not sure of, so if I'm wrong someone correct me. I believe he said an agreement must be reached between five of the seven. If I heard this correctly, four legislative members and one gubernatorial candidate must agree.

That is correct. One of Rendell's picks, and all four of the legislative picks must agree.

Stoosh wrote:I'll be at the game tonight (first row of F1, fat guy, white Crosby jersey if anyone wants to stop up and say hi). I'll see what I can do because we can get pretty damn loud up there and something tells me the building won't exactly be crawling with rabid Blues fans.

I heard the Plager brothers are coming back for a special 1 game appearance to break the losing streak!

- Lots of people interested in getting back into the bidding for the team. Most names from the past are resurfacing.

- Rossi says if the IoC wins, Mario may very well keep the team.

- On DÃ¢â‚¬â„¢Angelo, Rossi doesn't believe his bud is entirely serious. Seems like someone who likes to get his name in the papers. There are other bidders out there who should be taken more seriously.

- Rossi would not rule out Sam Fingold coming back into the bidding for the team. Or Jim Balsillie for that matter.

- On Cuban, Rossi believes that the longer Cuban says nothing, the greater the chances are that heÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s aligning himself with someone to make a bid.

- Madden continues with Cuban, arguing that CubanÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s silence equates with embarrassment. Rossi says we wonÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t hear from Cuban until after the license is awarded, and if he was interested in just another publicity stunt, he wouldÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ve spoken up by now.

- Back to BalsillieÃ¢â‚¬Â¦why would he back out Friday and then get back in the bidding? Rossi says if IoC doesnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t win, the price of the team comes down and Balsillie pays less than $175 million for the team.

- THIS IS BIG. Rule out KC as a destination unless Boots DelBiaggio gets back into it. Highly unlikely because Boots told Rossi yesterday that heÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s not interested in getting back into the hunt for an NHL team.

- If Balsillie takes the team anywhere, heÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ll take them to a Canadian market.

On the licenseÃ¢â‚¬Â¦

- Rossi speculates that the Board might not have enough votes to award the license either way. Reiterates that this is mere speculation. A delay would be a worse scenario for the Pens because there is a Sports & Exhibition Authority meeting on Thursday and negotiations on Plan B were expected to begin at that meeting. HOWEVER, if this gets delayed, it could be very bad for Forest City.

- Sources he has within the NHL say that the league absolutely do not want this team to leave Pittsburgh and they will exhaust all available options to make sure that doesn't happen. The league is extremely concerned about losing this market.

- If Balsillie gets back into the bidding with a sweet offer, Mario would probably listen.

- Any chance Mario wants to keep the team indefinitely if IoC wins? ThereÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s a chance because the value of the team would skyrocket. He may seek out new partners in the ownership group.

On the license againÃ¢â‚¬Â¦

This may not be the slamdunk in Forest CityÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s favor. Four things Rossi cites:

1. Apparently, the board is very aware that the FC/HarrahÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s plan is not the favorable or popular plan with the residents of this area, and that has been carrying much more weight with the board than people are giving them credit for.

2. The traffic issues associated with FC are a very significant concern for the board and several board members were not happy at all with the way Forest City and HarrahÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s kind of half-assed their approach to finding a solution for it, especially at the September hearings. On that noteÃ¢â‚¬Â¦

3. Several board members were put off by the way FC/HarrahÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s came off during the entire process. Rossi said that from some of the things heÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s hearing, some board members expressed the thought that FC/HarrahÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s came off as very high-and-mighty and kind of took the board members to be idiots. FC/HarrahÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s kind of approached this whole process in a very cavalier manner, as if the board members would be overwhelmed by the HarrahÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s projections and simply win in a landslide.

4. The Majestic Star slots parlor is apparently much more of a threat to FC/HarrahÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s than anyone had admitted to this point. ThereÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s some strong speculation that some board members favor this plan over the other two.

Rossi reiterated that a lot of the speculation on who has how many votes is just speculation at this point, and heÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s hearing different things practically every 15 minutes. What he told Madden was an overall picture of what heÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s gleaned so far.

I'm 16 so i have to go to school tomorrow.....Once i get my text from my sister as to who won the liscense there are two scenerios which may occur...
.
Scenerio AI receive the text that IOC wins - I start screaming wherever i am and begin distributing hugs to everyone in sight (including ugly ******)
.
Scenerio BI receive the text and IOC does not win - I find the fattest and most annoying looking kid in the school and drop kick him in the face. After the drop kick, i will then target any kid that is smiling in the halls with my right hook and procede to spit on them after the punch. After receiving out of school suspension i will then come home and lay a hay maker on my mom. I will end the night by having macaroni n cheese and inturn cry myself to sleep.

malkins-shoulder wrote:I receive the text and IOC does not win - I find the fattest and most annoying looking kid in the school and drop kick him in the face. After the drop kick, i will then target any kid that is smiling in the halls with my right hook and procede to spit on them after the punch. After receiving out of school suspension i will then come home and lay a hay maker on my mom. I will end the night by having macaroni n cheese and inturn cry myself to sleep.

Scary . . . I just heard Board member Sanford Rivers commenting (from today) that all he's heard from Isle of Capri is "about the arena . . . nothing about helping the community." 1) WHAT COULD HELP THE ENTIRE REGION MORE THAN A FREE MULTI-PURPOSE FACILITY?!!
2) Much planning was done by IOC as to reconnecting the lower Hill again and making things better for those people.
3) I was at the Gaming Board hearings, and a lot of IOC's presentation focused on community give-back. They have done waaaaaaaaaaay more than Harrah's ever did (look it up).
See ridiculous statements like Mr. Rivers just made are what convinces people that the fix is in.

I still have a feeling that PITG may some how sneak out with this. They had good revenue projections, pays for part of the arena, and develops the Hill. He is also the minority owner they are looking for and it seems he has no hardcore enemies like the IOC or FC. He is the easy way out.

newarenanow wrote:I still have a feeling that PITG may some how sneak out with this. They had good revenue projections, pays for part of the arena, and develops the Hill. He is also the minority owner they are looking for and it seems he has no hardcore enemies like the IOC or FC. He is the easy way out.

I've been thinking the same thing. If valid, that will hurt big time. I'm out of Tums!

Jasmine wrote:Scary . . . I just heard Board member Sanford Rivers commenting (from today) that all he's heard from Isle of Capri is "about the arena . . . nothing about helping the community." 1) WHAT COULD HELP THE ENTIRE REGION MORE THAN A FREE MULTI-PURPOSE FACILITY?!!2) Much planning was done by IOC as to reconnecting the lower Hill again and making things better for those people.3) I was at the Gaming Board hearings, and a lot of IOC's presentation focused on community give-back. They have done waaaaaaaaaaay more than Harrah's ever did (look it up).See ridiculous statements like Mr. Rivers just made are what convinces people that the fix is in.

He's one of Spendells appointees.but what REALLY ought to scare you is he used to be a head linesman in the NFL & you know how incompetent they are